Students at Temple Academy now have lots of places to go – all from the comfort of the school’s new library, of course.

Children can go on reading adventures in the La Puente campus’ new library which opened last week as the school celebrated Dr. Seuss’ birthday on Friday, March 2.

The library opening, themed “Oh, the Places We’ll Go” after a Dr. Seuss title, gave parents, district members and guests a chance to explore the library, which started from two unused rooms transformed into one larger one.

“It even has a new smell,” said Temple principal Mary Castner. “We’ve been making do (with the old library) and we talked about expanding but with budget cuts, we thought it was just a dream.”

That dream became a reality when, with the help of Bonnie Wilson at Hacienda La Puente Unified School District, Temple applied for a $75,000 grant and got it.

The grant, which came from Alcoa Fastening Systems in the City of Industry and Alcoa Foundation, and with the help of Temple Academy’s Partners in Literacy Development, the library took no more than four months to complete. The district’s Facilities and Technology departments did all the physical work.

“Today, I was completely impressed with the enthusiasm the kids had with the books,” said Alcoa director of operations, Hady Elkobaitry. “It was an honor for Alcoa to come in and work with the school district to make this happen.”

Elkobaitry said he has young children and always stresses to them the importance of reading.

“I tell them you have to read, have to learn,” he said. “It’s `Green Eggs and Ham’ every day at my house.”

Alcoa has partnered with the district before and donated new books to the school previously.

“This is an ongoing partnership and we’re excited about the future. We have to do this for the children, they are our future,” said Elkobaitry.

The library features rows and rows of books, many newly donated, reading tables and chairs, new carpeting and lighting, a technology section, reader’s theatre stadium and more.

The students were happy they now had an actual building and rooms to read and enjoy their library in, instead of the small trailer-style building it was previously in.

“I like that it has stairs (in the reader’s theatre) and there’s tables and chairs to sit on,” said fifth-grader Noel Cabrera. “We just sat on the floor before.”

“I like that it’s bigger so you don’t get all squished when there is another class (in the library at the same time),” added fourth-grader Julisa Baeza. “You can sit down (on chairs) and read a book.”

The 9-year-old’s younger brother Luis Baeza, a second-grader, also likes how much bigger the library is now and said he will take advantage of reading on the steps of the stadium.

“I like to read Pokemon books and `Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ books,” said the 7-year-old.

Parents also took part in the celebration on Friday and were glad to see what their children can enjoy at the school now.

“This was much needed,” said parent Susana Olivares in Spanish. “The library was really small. We’re thankful to everyone who made this happen.”

Maria Lara, who has two children attending Temple, agreed with fellow parent Olivares.

“The teachers require the students to read at least 30 minutes a day and they end up reading the same book over again,” she said, in Spanish, of the lack of new books the old library had. “The children were so enthusiastic to read.”

Castner and Lizette Bravo, Temple’s media center aide, have lots of plans for the library including opening it up to parents and the community one Saturday a month to take advantage of the facility.

“We want this to be like a room in your own home to read and enjoy,” said Bravo, a Temple alum.

“We’re hoping to grow our parent involvement,” added Castner. “They can come in and help shelve books and we hope to have parent workshops to explain to them some of our strategies that we are using to teach their children.”

To continue the celebration, three firefighters from the L.A. County Fire Station 26 in La Puente visited three classrooms, from kindergarten through second grade, to read to the students.

Claudia Palma has been covering the San Gabriel Valley and Pasadena area since 2005. She is a contributing editor and writer for the Pasadena Star-News' annual Rose Magazine featuring all things Rose Parade. A longtime San Gabriel Valley resident, she enjoys reading, music and almost anything sci-fi, whenever possible. Her days now are lovingly filled with her high school-sweetheart husband, two strong-willed girls (like their mama), and their cool baby boy. Hablamos español.

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